GPS Tracking Helps Catch Illegal Loggers in Amazon

Amazon campaigners conducted an undercover operation to reveal the extent of illegal deforestation by loggers in the Amazon. Greenpeace Brazil handed their evidence over to local law enforcement who are expected to perform raids early Wednesday. Aerial and satellite images were also collected during the undercover operation.

Members of Greenpeace went undercover in dangerous and remote areas of the Amazon to place the GPS tracking devices on trucks. It’s the first time a tactic like as such has been used in the fight to stop deforestation. The tracking devices revealed the trucks were journeying 200 miles into remote protected areas of the forest to collect logs for eventual export to the US, Europe, Japan, and China.

Despite eruptions of violence during previous efforts to expose the illegal logging, the leader of the Greenpeace operation, who wishes to remain anonymous, said, “[The organization was] convinced the operation would bring strong evidence of this silent crisis affecting the Amazon and its people.”